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Morales Pushes Energy Nationalization
 President Evo Morales vowed to move forward with his campaign to nationalize Bolivia's oil and gas industry while presiding Saturday over ceremonies marking the transfer of two Brazilian-owned oil refineries to state hands.Bolivia this week agreed to buy back formerly state-owned refineries from Brazilian state energy company Petroleo Brasileiro SA for $112 million. On Friday, the government announced it would negotiate the purchase of a majority share in the Bolivian operations of four more foreign companies, as dictated by Morales' nationalization decree last year. "We have not yet finished the job," Morales told a flag-waving crowd at the Guillermo Elder Bell refinery near the eastern city of Santa Cruz. "There is still work to do." Morales was expected to attend a similar ceremony later at the Gualberto Villaroel refinery near Cochabamba. The four businesses to be targeted are: pipeline company Transredes, part owned by Royal Dutch Shell; the gas exploration company Chaco, owned by the British company BP; gas exploration company Andina, subsidiary of the Spanish-Argentine company Repsol YPF; and the Hydrocarbons Logistics Company of Bolivia, jointly owned by the German company Oiltanking GmbH and the Peruvian company Grana y Montera SA. Posted by: Fred 2007-05-13 |
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